Nicolas Sarkozy wades into UMP leadership battle

Nicolas Sarkozy has been forced to wade into the leadership battle tearing apart France's main Right-wing opposition party.

(L-R): Outgoing UMP general secretary Jean-Francois Cope, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and former French Prime minister Francois Fillon Photo: AFP

2:28PM GMT 26 Nov 2012

The UMP, the political heir to the party founded by Charles de Gaulle after the Second World War, is in turmoil after accusations of vote-rigging tarnished a leadership vote.

On Monday, Francois Fillon, the former prime minister, stepped up his battle against Jean-Francois Cope by calling for the "precautionary seizure" of ballots cast in the leadership vote "to protect them from tampering or alteration".

Mr Fillon's camp said party members had blocked a bailiff sent to secure the ballots, but Mr Cope's supporters denied this.

A party appeals commission resumed meeting on Monday to deal with complaints of vote irregularities and sources close to Cope said it was expected to issue a ruling in his favour in the afternoon.

Still reeling from its loss of the presidency and parliament this year, the UMP is facing the spectre of an unprecedented split on the right, with rival camps showing no sign of backing down in an increasingly angry dispute.

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Mr Sarkozy met one of the rivals for the leadership, his former Prime Minister Francois Fillon, for lunch after flying in early on Monday from a conference in Shanghai, a source close to Mr Fillon said.

The meeting lasted more than an hour in Mr Sarkozy's office in central Paris, after talks to resolve the damaging dispute collapsed late on Sunday.

Called in to mediate, party heavyweight Alain Juppe threw in the towel on Sunday after failed talks between Mr Fillon and his rival, ambitious party secretary general Jean-Francois Cope.

Mr Juppe said on Monday that only Mr Sarkozy would be able to resolve the crisis.

"I used to think the former president should protect himself a bit from this partisan bickering," Juppe told RTL radio. "Clearly he is the only one today to have enough authority to propose a way out."

A source close to Mr Cope said he had also had a "long and cordial telephone conversation" with Mr Sarkozy on Monday morning.

Mr Fillon, 58, and Mr Cope, 48, have traded accusations of fraud and ballot-rigging since last Sunday's party election ended with Mr Cope ahead by only 98 votes.

The party electoral commission has since said that ballots cast in France's overseas territories that were not counted would have reversed the result, while the Cope camp has claimed he would have won by a clear margin but for vote-rigging in the Mediterranean city of Nice.

Mr Fillon said Mr Cope was to blame for the failure of the mediation efforts and announced he would turn to the courts to resolve the dispute – a move UMP Vice-President Luc Chatel described as a "nuclear bomb" inside the party.

The party has faced ridicule over the debacle at a time it could be taking advantage of Socialist President Francois Hollande's falling popularity over his handling of France's struggling economy.